1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roof for an automotive vehicle and, more particularly, to a roof having a sliding sunroof and a sliding sunshade.
In a known roof construction, the roof includes a sliding sunroof and a sliding sunshade. The sliding sunroof and sunshade are provided for isolating sunlight, and slide beneath a rear, fixed vehicle roof surface, starting from a closed position, to open a vehicle roof window. Typically, the sunroof and sunshade are independently operated to open and close a vehicle roof opening or window. In such a roof construction, the sunroof is easily left opened and, accordingly, the sunshade may be exposed to adverse weather or sunlight. If the vehicle is traveling and the sunshade is exposed to such adverse weather, the sunshade, which is generally lower in structural strength than the sunroof, can possibly be damaged due to negative pressure directly applied thereto. In addition, the sunshade, which is generally tinted so as to isolate sunlight, provides poor visibility. It is, therefore, difficult to make certain that the sunroof is closed.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to enable a sliding sunshade to move only a short distance and yet open the roof opening completely, it has been proposed to divide sunshades into two, i.e., front and rear, sunshade portions. Such a construction is described in, for instance, Japanese Utility Model Application No. 56(1981)-121,126, entitled "Sunshade for Vehicle Roof Window," filed Sep. 14, 1981 and laid open to the public as Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 58(1983)-25,722 on Feb. 18, 1983. In the "double sunshade" structure described in the above-mentioned publication, a link means is provided for linking front ends of the front and rear sunshades when opening the roof window and the rear end of the front sunshade with the front end of the rear sunshade when closing the roof window. Consequently, the front and rear sunshades should overlap so that one of the sunshades is located over the other in their opened positions. In addition, whenever sunlight is needed by passengers of a rear seat of the vehicle but not by passengers of a front seat, the situation can not be properly governed by the double sunshade structure described in the above-mentioned publication.